August 22, 2014

Been a while so just thought I'd post a few things. We had three of Nelson's golfing buddies here for several days. They were wonderful guests and we had a good time. They played golf everyday.  I just heated up some frozen appetizers the first night they were here, made dinner the 2nd night. Then they took us out to dinner and the last night two of the guys made a seafood past dinner so there was little work except clean up for me to do. 

I have been feeling tied to the kitchen lately. Once the garden comes in, I can hardly keep up with all that needs to be taken care of and it's also time to dry some herbs to take home. So far have dried oregano, parsley, and tarragon.  Waiting for the most recent dill to get a little bigger. And older dill I will harvest seeds from soon.  I've also dried many vegetables to use in soup - cabbage, yellow squash, zucchini, some small tomatoes (red and yellow) and dragon beans. We'll see how that works.

As you can see from picture on right, I've canned a lot of stuff.

The dry conditions of several weeks ago have been replaced by rain almost everyday though we've only had one stretch of all-day rains. Mostly it rains late afternoon or evening, so it's not so bad. Picked the last of my cabbage yesterday, still have a one head in the refrigerator. Made coleslaw today with the one that was there before. And I have some mixed pickles fermenting that includes cabbage.  Cucumbers are still coming in slowly, but still lots of flowers too.

L & B brought me a lot of tomatoes all at one time so have been able to can quite a few. Ours were coming in, but we never seemed to have enough to can a whole load, so mostly we've just been eating or making sauce with. They have so many, L said she never wants to can another, but now she is making tomato juice.  They also gave me beets, so I canned some of those as well.  I've supplied them with squash and bush beans - though they aren't taking enough of those.

We are starting to have more tomatoes turn ripe though so have picked quite a few in last few days.  We've had a lot of little pear shaped yellow tomatoes. There was a mix up with plants at the school where HJ and Butch start the seeds and things were mis-labeled. Would never had planted all these yellow tomatoes if they have been labeled correctly. But as a result have tried two new Tomato jam recipes - yellow tomato-ginger jam  (okay- but won't make again) and tomato-basil jam (used some red and some yellow) which I like much better. Second time I made that, I added some jalapenos to give it a little more kick. It's good with cream cheese on crackers.  And made a little tomato juice today and used all the yellow tomatoes I had, plus red ones- peculiar color,  but tastes okay. Not sure I will do that again though.

Started to rip out some plants that are finished and cleaned up the herb garden which was very weedy.

Grandma Chloe's childhood home, Brookdale, was sold a few weeks ago and a very nice family (The Brackens) has moved in from California. Philip (he's Irish - love his accent) and Linda and two daughters both recently out of college. They are raising chickens but are trying to decide what else to do on the "farm."    Just got the baby chicks and the girls are enjoying how cute they are.  The previous owners had started a garden, so they are reaping the benefits of that.  All are lovely folks.  I've been invited to stop by and plan to do that soon. 

August 5

Garden looks like it is very healthy, but we sure could use some rain; the ground is very dry.  

The first-planted bush green beans are just about done. Next ones still have some beans and third planting are just starting to produce. Froze some today - canned many two days ago. We also ate some tonight - they were yummy. Also made Salsa yesterday and canned the first batch of sauerkraut.

Yellow squash, zucchini and cucumbers are starting to multiply.   The green peppers are still lagging behind. Think they are looking for some warm weather. Since we are still getting nights in the 50's and 60's they don't seem ready to produce;. They are flowering however, so there is hope!  Corn is getting ready but ears aren't very large - guess who's not happy?

Hibiscus

Lots of interesting flowers weeds around right now.  The Hibiscus are covered with japanese beetles but also bees and humming birds so don't want to spray them. Still can see a few really pretty flowers. 

There are also daisy like weeds, hellenium, goldenrod, butterfly bush, Queen's Anne Lace, orange weed (sure it has another name), Love-in-the-mist, Hostas, etc.

Orange Weed

Queen Anne's Lace

No idea what this is- it's kinda cute though

Peaches are getting ripe! We've had a few on cereal, made a dessert, and tomorrow will start with peach jelly. Soon they will all be ripe and I'll be busy canning them.  We don't have many blackberries, but what we have are ripening a little at a time. Had some in a dessert and have frozen a few. 

Ripe peaches

Blackberries - ripening

Day Three - Asheville and Home again

Last day at the B and B. Beautiful place and lovely breakfasts.

Front of Main house - Cedar Crest Inn

Sweet statue out front

Very elegant setting for breakfast in the main house. They gave us a late check-out so Jon and I took advantage of that to go play tennis before we left. Gave us time to come back and take showers before the drive for the ride home.

Breakfast room at Inn

Side porch where  (2nd story) we entered for Breakfast

Once we left the B and B we drove for a few miles on the Blue Ridge Parkway and stopped at the NC Craft Guild Shop. Several hours later and with a few lighter pocketbooks, we left for home.

It was afternoon before we arrived home and Nelson was at work, trying to finish installing a timer on the switch of the outdoor lights. Still not working correctly, but he's continuing to work on it. Not a happy camper, so we're not discussing and I don't know if any progress is being made.

However he stopped long enough for us to go out for a last dinner with our guests. Good dinner at the Log Cabin Inn. Steaks all around and everyone said they were good.

My sister dug up a lot of Iris and replanted many of them.   They were crowding each other and some growing in the wrong direction.  Still some lying there, waiting for me to replant (as of Sat).  And I picked a few things from garden - cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes. Sent some of them to Tim's with my sister. Friday, once company left, I spent the day in the garden. Picked many beans, tomatoes, cabbage, cucumbers, and squash and trimmed leaves off tomato plants and re-staking.    Once you pick then you also have to do something with all that stuff. Afternoon and evening spent cutting cabbage - another batch of sauerkraut is fermenting and I put about 1/2 head in the dehydrator to see how it would do.. Dried fine, now just have to figure out how to use it so I know if I want to dry any more..  Shredded several zucchini in preparation for making zucchini-oatmeal cookies and of course zucchini bread.  Then cleaned and prepared green beans for canning. Finished that about 11:30PM and then off to bed. Canning tomorrow.

These are just samples - picked much more!

beans

various tomatoes and peppers

Crookneck squash